The Fourth Horseman (8 page)

Gareth smirked. “I won’t tell him you said
that. I suspect he takes pride in remaining as fit as he ever
was.”

“
Where is he now?” Gwen
said.

“
He has been given a room
in the keep.” Gareth turned to Mari. “Thank you for caring for
Gwen. We had just returned to the castle when I learned of the
attack on Prior Rhys. My first thought was of Gwen, of course. I’m
so glad you were here to find her.”

“
What is the hour?” Gwen
said.

“
It is not yet noon,”
Gareth said.

Gwen’s brow furrowed as she thought. “I
spent some time examining David before the man came. It felt like
Prior Rhys was gone a long time. Perhaps I wasn’t unconscious for
more than a quarter of an hour.”

“
It was too long for you to
lie on the floor,” Mari said.

“
Prior Rhys may have lain
unattended at least that long,” Gwen said.

Mari’s brow furrowed. “You would think that
in a castle this crowded, someone would have noticed him
sooner.”

“
Our culprit had hauled his
body behind a stack of wood.” Gareth focused on Mari. “How is it
that you found Gwen?” he said, and then added before she could
answer, “Why are you even at Newcastle?”

“
I came with Uncle
Goronwy,” Mari said, answering Gareth’s second question first. “I
found Gwen because I asked—” Mari stopped, and her face suffused
with color. Gwen had never seen her look so embarrassed
before.

Mari tried again. “While my uncle saw to our
accommodations, I spoke with Prince Hywel. He was in the hall,
having recently completed an audience with Earl Robert. He didn’t
know where any of you were, but the guard at the door had seen Gwen
enter the chapel with Evan.” Mari smiled and touched Gwen’s cheek.
“You can’t go anywhere unremarked, you know.”

Gwen didn’t know what to make of that, but
Gareth’s jaw clenched, and he hugged her closer. “Do you think you
can walk, Gwen?”

“
I’m fine, really.” Gwen
allowed Gareth to help her to stand and then took a step. In so
doing, she realized that she really was fine. She didn’t even weave
on her feet. “You survived worse last winter and walked home to
Aber after.”

Gareth’s eyes narrowed. “I swore to your
father that this trip would not be dangerous.”

Suddenly, Gwen found herself smiling. “Did
you forget whom we serve, husband?”

Gareth gave a snort of laughter but then
immediately sobered. “You would have told me if you’d seen anything
that might help us, right? Even if you didn’t see the face of the
man who took David’s body.”

“
I can’t think of anything
that would help.” Gwen gave a short laugh too. “I assumed Prior
Rhys had returned to the room, and I was trying to figure out how
to tell him—”

Gwen broke off as the rest of her memory
came flooding back.

“
What? What is it?” Gareth
said.

At that moment, Mari bent to the floor.
“What’s this?” She held out her hand. The emerald lay nestled in
her palm.

Gwen fumbled for the purse at her waist. The
strings hung loose, and she remembered that she’d never closed them
around the stone.

“
How came this here?” Mari
said, awe in her voice.

“
I dropped it,” Gwen said.
“I had just put it in my purse when the man grabbed me. David had
sewn it into the hem of his cloak. It must have fallen out of my
purse when the man sent me to the floor.”

The three friends stood together, looking
down at the stone.

“
Do you think the person
who took the body knew about the gem and wanted it—or wanted it
back because he had given it to David in the first place?” Mari
said.

“
If that is true, when he
examines David’s body and doesn’t find it, he may come looking for
you, Gwen,” Gareth said.

Gwen didn’t like the sound of that. “No. No,
he won’t. Prior Rhys was shocked to learn that I planned to examine
David’s body. He left the room because the very idea of it made him
uncomfortable.”

“
Really?” Gareth
said.

Gwen shrugged. “Or so it seemed at the time.
Regardless, if the man who took David’s body was worried that I’d
found the emerald, don’t you think he would have harmed me
more?”

Gareth made a growling sound deep in his
throat. “I like Newcastle less and less with every hour that
passes.”

“
You’d better take this.”
Mari dumped the emerald into Gareth’s hand.

Gareth clenched his fist around the stone.
“I must speak to Prince Hywel. We have two bodies now and a gem so
valuable I’m afraid to keep it with me.”

“
How would David have come
by an emerald?” Gwen said. “He didn’t appear to me to be a rich
man.”

“
This would make him rich,
but—” Mari tapped Gareth’s fist so he would open it, and she peered
at the gem again, “—not that rich. It’s very small.”

“
You mean it isn’t worth as
much as I thought?” Gwen said.

“
I don’t know what you
thought it was worth,” Mari said. “Certainly, it could buy David
some land. It has a value of more than most villages.”

“
So does my sword,” Gareth
said.

“
Was David a thief, do you
think?” Gwen said. “Or could the gem have been meant as payment for
a task?”

“
If the latter is the case,
it would be nice to know if he still had to complete it,” Mari
said, “or if it was for services already rendered.”

“
I can’t answer that, but I
know more about David than I did when I saw you last.” Gareth
stowed the gem in his scrip. “According to Amaury, David was a spy,
and not just for Earl Ranulf.” He pointed at Mari, a sternness in
his demeanor that he usually reserved for the men under his
command. “And that knowledge does not leave this room, do you
understand?”

Mari’s eyes widened, but she nodded.

Gareth turned to Gwen. “That goes for you,
too. I don’t want you involved in this anymore.”

Gwen thought about getting angry, but then
she decided to take Gareth’s attitude for what it was: concern for
the welfare of his wife. She put a hand on his arm. “I’m already
involved, as you well know, and short of sending me home—which
isn’t necessarily the safest proposition either—your only choice is
to leave me at our camp. It’s full of men, but a lone intruder
could reach me easily if you’re not there with me.” She gestured to
the room around her. “Certainly, I wasn’t safe today in a chapel in
a guarded castle. Whoever removed David’s body did so without
calling attention to himself. How easy would he find it to enter
our encampment if he chose?”

Gareth looked as if he was going to argue
with her as a matter of principle but swallowed down any response
beyond, “I don’t like it.” And at Gwen’s shrug, he added, “We’ll
see.”

Chapter Eight

Gareth

G
wen’s logic was sound, but the fact that a man had touched
her—even if his intent had been only to subdue her—burned in
Gareth. He had sworn that he would keep her safe, and here she was,
in danger on their first day at Newcastle. He was having a hard
time controlling his anger, and he clenched and unclenched his
fists, breathing deeply to rein in his temper.

That Gwen had involved herself in the
investigation, and that he’d allowed her to do so made him even
angrier. What kind of husband put his wife in harm’s way? And yet,
she was her own person. He’d known that when he married her, and it
was one of the many things he loved about her. She would still love
him if he sent her back to the camp—she might even forgive him. At
the same time, he was afraid that she was correct in thinking that
their encampment would prove no safer for her than the castle. If
the man who took David’s body guessed that she had the emerald, she
wouldn’t be safe anywhere.

Gareth had almost ripped off Evan’s head a
moment ago as they’d left the chapel. His friend had been waiting
anxiously for them near the entrance to the great hall. But Evan’s
expression had made Gareth swallow down his ire. It wasn’t Evan’s
fault that Gwen was hurt, any more than it was Prior Rhys’s, who
had already paid for his mistake in leaving her alone. Together
they would find the man who harmed her. Gareth resolved to be more
diligent about keeping Gwen with him at all times, or to ensure
that another could protect her during those times when they had to
be apart.

In truth, he blamed himself more than anyone
for what had happened. Gwen was his wife, and her welfare was his
responsibility.

The emerald, tiny as it was, lay heavy in
Gareth’s scrip as he escorted Mari and Gwen into the great hall,
Evan and Gruffydd trailing behind them. Their hands rested on their
sword hilts somewhat more conspicuously than usual. Gareth looked
right and left, feeling as if everyone was watching him and could
see through his scrip to the gem. Even King Owain had few gems in
his treasury. How had David come by his?

They passed through the anteroom and into
the great hall. Prince Hywel stood near the dais, and at their
approach, his expression filled with concern. He gave a quick nod
and said, “I can see you have more news than just the harm to Prior
Rhys. We shouldn’t speak here.”

Then the prince’s eyes drifted to Mari. It
was only a brief glance, but it sent a tingling sensation down
Gareth’s spine. The look spoke of interest and was one Gareth
hadn’t seen in his lord’s eyes in a long while.

“
Come this way.” Hywel held
out his arm to Mari, who took it. The pair stepped off the dais,
heading for a side door that led to a stairway and other parts of
the castle.

Watching them go, Gwen tightened her grip on
Gareth’s arm. “Gareth—”

“
I see it,” he
said.

Gareth counted Gwen among the few women
Hywel had not been able to charm into his bed. Mari should have
known better than to look for companionship there, but sometimes a
woman’s heart overrode her common sense. And sometimes a girl might
need reminding when faced with the reality of this handsome Prince
of Gwynedd. Even Gwen had admitted to Gareth once—when pressed and
given assurance that nothing she could say would make him take
offense—that God had given Hywel more gifts than any man had a
right to.

“
How is Prior Rhys?” Gwen
said to Hywel’s back.

“
Ill.” Hywel turned his
head to look at Gwen and Gareth. “He has a rising lump on his head
from a hard blow. It might have killed him, and the wound continues
to bleed. I’m worried that he might never regain his right mind. We
won’t know until he wakes. If he wakes.”

“
I’m glad he’s alive,” Gwen
said.

“
But he’s not conscious?”
Gareth said.

Hywel shook his head. “He hasn’t spoken, or
at least he hasn’t said anything that makes sense. Why someone
would attack a prior—”

“
I’m afraid I can help with
that,” Gareth said. They halted in a corridor before a half open
door, one floor above where Gareth had seen the two maids talking
when he’d gone looking for Alard that morning. “David’s body is
gone, my lord.”

Hywel’s teeth snapped together.
“Explain.”

“
Mari found Gwen collapsed
on the floor of the room which had housed David’s body,” Gareth
said.

“
Sweet Mari!” Hywel said.
And then his eyes went to Mari beside him. He flashed a grin and
reached for her hand to clasp it. “Thank you for looking out for
Gwen.” Still holding Mari’s hand, Hywel pushed at the door and made
to enter the room with her.

Gareth put out a hand to stop him. “There’s
more I must relate to you, my lord, before we speak to any
Norman.”

“
I guessed that,” Hywel
said from the doorway. “Rhun and I have been assigned to this room.
We can speak privately in here.”

Rhun sat on a bench at the end of the bed,
polishing his sword with a fine cloth. He stood up as they entered.
The room was larger than Hywel’s room back at Aber Castle—twice as
large, truth be told—with a wide bed large enough for the brothers
to share, even if Hywel would have preferred female company. The
room was well-appointed with a trunk, a rack upon which to store
weapons, a tapestry on the wall depicting a boar hunt, and a
fireplace (unlit, as it was May).

“
Earl Robert has honored
you with this room, my lord,” Mari said.

Hywel snorted a laugh. “Has he? I’m not so
sure.”

“
What do you mean?” Mari
said.

“
What Prince Hywel is
saying is that the honor might not be as great as it first
appears,” Gareth said. “It’s too easy for these Normans to decide
that a Welsh prince might make a useful prisoner.”

Mari’s eyes widened. “Earl Robert wouldn’t
do that!”

“
There is very little my
father wouldn’t agree to if it meant freeing Rhun and me from
captivity,” Hywel said, with a nod towards his brother. “Earl
Robert may not wish to alienate his Welsh allies to that extent,
but not all Normans have been so restrained.”

Then Prince Hywel canted his head towards
Evan and Gruffydd, who’d remained in the doorway. “Keep a
watch.”

They nodded and stepped back into the
corridor. Gareth made to ease the door closed, but Evan stopped him
before he could. “Wait—”

Gareth hesitated, looking at his friend.

“
I know I don’t deserve
your forgiveness,” Evan said, “but I wanted to say that I am so
very sorry for what happened to Gwen. She was in my charge and
I—”